Uncharted Territory
Fandom: CSI
Pairing: Sara/Archie
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1,535
Spoilers: None – though you might learn stuff about other sci-fi shows that you never wanted to know!
Notes: You guys, I’m so sorry! Dynamic_gravity made me do it!
“I don’t know how you do it.”
Archie grinned as he looked over at Sara, because in the few weeks that they’d been seeing one another, she’d said those very words to him on more than one occasion. She couldn’t understand how he could go from an eight hour shift – and sometimes longer – staring at television screens and video footage, only to come home and find great pleasure in sacking out in front of a television set with a stack of videos.
Which was something that Archie was used to; after all, he’d heard variations on that particular theme most of his life.
“Life of a fanboy, Sara,” he told her, not for the first time, patting the place beside him on the couch. She rolled her eyes at his answer, but she was smiling when she did it, and she didn’t waste any time in sitting down beside him, tilting her head and squinting at the DVD cover on the coffee table.
“So, what are we looking at today?” she asked, a note of long-suffering fondness – or at least, that’s what Archie chose to believe it was – in her voice, and he grinned over at her.
“Exploring the uncharted territories, Sara… Farscape. Second season.” They were working their way through the complete series, Sara having expressed an interest in learning more about Archie’s particular hobbies, and considering that most of the women in Archie’s life ran screaming away from science-fiction, he was rather enjoying the job of introducing Sara to that part of his world.
“Farscape…” She drew the word out, leaning forward to better see the DVD cover. “That’s the one with the guy, right? The one I like?”
“Yes. Ben Browder.” And if Archie’s voice went a little tetchy there, well, who could blame him? It was one thing to introduce Sara to the world of Farscape. Hearing a non-fan express what could only be a fangirl’s opinion as to the appearance of Ben Browder in a pair of leather trousers had not done anything for Archie’s disposition.
“Hang on… I thought he was in that other thing… with the circle and the water in the middle of it?”
Sara was frowning, lips pursed together, and Archie chuckled, his momentary irritation forgotten. “He’s not. Well, he is. He will be.” Sara was looking at him like he’d lost his mind, and he started again. “He’s going to be in the new series… but he’s not yet. That’s Stargate SG1.”
Sara blinked again. “I thought that was the one with the bald English guy in it?”
“That’s Star Trek: The Next Generation. And Patrick Stewart. Stargate has Richard Dean Anderson.”
Her face cleared, mystery solved. “McGyver,” she said, and Archie resisted the urge, narrowly, to grind his teeth.
“Yes. The one with McGyver in it.”
“But this is Farscape.”
“Yes.” That much done, Archie pressed the play button, and instantly, the vision of a woman, tall, bald and blue-skinned filled the screen. “Remember her name?” he teased, because for a woman who could hold onto the most minute of scientific facts, Sara’s recall of science-fiction names was sorely lacking. When she didn’t reply, he took pity on her. “Zhaan.”
“I would have remembered that.”
She sounded almost petulant, and he laughed; he couldn’t help it. “You remember what makes her different to the rest of the crew?”
Sara smirked. “Aside from the skin colour, the lack of hair and the flowing robes?”
“Aside from that.”
“You’re testing me,” she decided. “You think I don’t remember this stuff.”
Archie shrugged. “It’s more along the lines of knowing that you don’t,” he told her, and had to deftly dodge her hand heading towards the back of his head.
“Actually, I do remember this one,” she said, sounding immensely pleased with herself. “She’s a plant.”
“Very good! And-”
Archie was about to say something else, but Sara apparently wasn’t finished. “And she goes into that cocoon thing and becomes half human,” she continued, and Archie found himself once more resisting the urge to grind his teeth.
“That’s
“Oh.”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure?”
Archie took a deep breath it, letting it
out very slowly. “Pretty sure. You remember,
Sara considered it for a second. “With the guy who doesn’t have a proper face?”
“The guy who-” It took a second for it to
register, and then Archie really did grind his teeth, wondering how the hell he
got sucked into this conversation in the first place. “No. That’s Odo, and that
show is Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Also set on a space station. But
“From Scarecrow and Mrs King,” Sara remembered, eyes brightening, a million years away. “I used to love that show…”
Archie shook his head, reaching up to rub the bridge of his nose for good measure. “I’m never showing you Tron,” he muttered, more to himself than to her, but Sara heard him anyway, turned a pleased expression on him.
“I know that one,” she said. “She’s the one on the ship, with the long hair who walks on the ceiling?” His face must have shown his confusion because she went on, “With the funny little mechanic guy, and the big guy with the long hair? And the ship’s got a robot that talks to them?”
It finally clicked with Archie and he opened and closed his mouth a few times before he could speak. “That’s Andromeda,” he said, sitting up straight on the couch, clicking off the DVD.
“Yeah.” Sara nodded. “With Tron, right?”
“Trance,” Archie corrected, dropping his head into his hands. “I’m starting to wonder if this is such a good idea.”
There was a long moment of silence between them, and for an instant, he’d wondered if Sara had taken him up wrong, if she was wondering whether he meant that their relationship was a bad idea. That wasn’t what he’d meant at all; he enjoyed the time they were spending together, enjoyed getting Sara to smile, to laugh, because it seemed that for way too long she’d been down in the dumps. He was trying to come up with a way to explain what he meant to her when she finally spoke.
“Has anyone ever told you,” she asked, “That you’re really cute when you’re flustered?”
It took the words a second to permeate his addled mind, and when they did, he looked up at her slowly. She was looking down at him, one arm resting on the back of the couch, her other hand resting on her knee, and the only words that came to mind at the expression on her face had to do with cats and canaries. She was grinning broadly, her eyes dancing, looking immensely pleased with herself, and when his jaw dropped open, she actually laughed. “You were just playing with me,” he said, just to make sure of it. “This was a little test you had going there.”
Sara, still laughing, held up both hands. “I just wanted to see how far you’d go to humour me,” she said. “I must say, you showed great patience…”
“Oh I did, did I? Well…” He tossed the remote onto the coffee table, turning to her. “How’s this for patience?”
With that, he lunged for her, hands finding her sides, which he knew from experience were a sensitive spot for her, and he tickled her for all he was worth. Laughing still, she squirmed against him, trying to get away, but he had her pinned to the couch, his hands roaming freely over her body, and he wasn’t about to let her off easily.
By the time he stopped, she was lying back on the couch with him flush on top of her, and she didn’t make any moves to get away from him. Quite the opposite in fact, because her hands went around his neck, effectively holding him in place, and while she was breathing hard, her cheeks flushed, Archie knew Sara well enough to know that those symptoms weren’t only due to the fact that she was more ticklish than she let on to people.
Of course, there was also the fact that he was pretty sure that his own face mirrored hers.
Clearing his throat, he rested his forehead against hers. “So…” he asked, trying to keep his voice light. “You’ve learned your lesson?”
“Oh, I don’t know…” She was smiling again, shifted underneath him slightly, a move that had shivers running up and down his spine and his eyes fluttering shut. “I kinda like where we’ve ended up…”
A slow smile spread across Archie’s face. “I see your point.” Lowering his lips to hers, he was surprised when she pulled back, looking towards the television screen.
“What about your Farscape?” she asked, and he knew that she was teasing him again. “I thought you wanted to explore uncharted territories…”
She might have been teasing, but when he lifted his hand to her cheek, he was anything but. “I already am,” he whispered right before he kissed her.
And when she kissed him back, he forgot about everything else.